Black and Silver: A Tale of Snapledore
by QueenofEmbercrypt
Summary: Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore: on the surface, as different as night and day, but both men hold many secrets and have lost a love to death. What would happen if the Headmaster and the Potions professor fell for each other?


It was the annual Hogwarts Yule Ball, rolling around again for an indeterminate year of the Golden Trio's time at the school. The festivities were in full swing: the Great Hall was brightly decorated, the house elves were hard at work preparing the feast, and everyone had chosen their date for the ball. That is, everyone but Severus Snape.

It wasn't as though Snape had ever felt the need to have a date to the ball before. After all, he was a professor. He wasn't at Hogwarts to flirt or dance. But still, as he heard the laughter and teasing he couldn't help but remember his own experiences with the Yule Ball as a student in the school, sitting alone at a corner of the Slytherin table and watching Lily Evans wistfully. Sure, there were parts of being a student that were less than enjoyable-such as putting up with that overblown toad, James Potter-but what he wouldn't give to have a second chance to find love. The sad truth was, Severus was lonely, and the Yule Ball was a terrible time to feel alone.

He shakes himself irritably as he tidies his classroom. "There should be no silly daydreaming or foolish regrets in my classroom," he mutters. He sits down at his desk and prepares for his next incompetent group of students to arrive. If he was not mistaken, it was Potter's year next. He sighs as the moronic children open the door and pour into his classroom, chattering excitedly.

Snape gets up to close the classroom door absent-mindedly. Just as it's about to shut, he hears someone clear their throat and looks up. Headmaster Dumbledore stands there with a cheerful smile.

"Hello, Severus," he greets merrily. "Happy Christmas."

"Yes, yes, very happy and all that," Severus grumbles. "I only hope that Potter, who you somehow see fit to absolve of all punishable offenses, won't cause any unfortunate and violent accidents this year."

Dumbledore laughs. "What an interesting sense of humor you have, Severus," he chuckles.

"Hoo-morrre?" Severus says, trying the word. It felt unfamiliar.

Dumbledore laughs again, not noticing how it annoyed the Potions master. "Well, in the spirit of the season, I have brought you some gifts," he says, practically skipping into the classroom towards Snape's desk. He sets a drawstring bag down and opens it. "Let's see here, we have...Lemon drops, some exploding bonbons, chocolate frogs and fizzing whizbees..." He winks at Snape. "And just between us, a good bottle of firewhisky from Madam Rosmerta."

Snape blinks at him, for once at a loss for words. "Oh...Ah, thank you, Albus," he says at last. "Much appreciated."

"Glad to share the holiday cheer," Dumbledore says grandly. "I do hope you enjoy the ball this year." He twirls out of the room, his beard spinning in silver circles as he goes.

Snape sits down at his desk and picks up a chocolate frog, eyeing it suspiciously. He shrieks like a little girl when it leaps out of his hands and goes bounding across the room to be slipped into Ron Weasley's book bag amid titters of students' laughter. Severus glares at them, suddenly uncomfortably aware that the entire, uncharacteristically friendly exchange had been seen by the class.

"What are you laughing at?" he snaps. "I suppose you all find a week's worth of detentions amusing, hm?"

The laughter quells instantly and silence falls, interrupted only by the slapping noise of the chocolate frog trying to escape from Ron's bag.

"I'm glad to see you all have a little more sense," he says. "Now if any of you have bothered to complete your potions homework at all, now is the time to turn it in. Good work, Draco...Try being a bit less of a showoff while you're about it, Miss Granger..."

Severus had become so adept at reeling off what he was supposed to say in class that he can safely allow his mind to wander to Dumbledore's gift. It had all seemed so strange and abrupt. The few Christmas gifts he had received before as Potions master were mostly textbooks and once a new set of robes, and those he had accepted stiffly. Why on earth would Dumbledore decide to give him such a gift now? Perhaps he had noticed his loneliness...But no, that was impossible. Snape was the greatest Occlumens at Hogwarts; surely he could conceal such a trivial emotion as loneliness. And he would continue to conceal it until it went away, if it ever did.


End file.
